Participants bring 8 wine glasses. It is better if all eight are of the same type
and style as it's difficult to compare a wine in a Riedel Bordeaux glass to one in a 9
ounce plastic tumbler.
The bottles are brown-bagged and coded, letters "A" through "H."
Typically only the Weimax staffers know what wines are being tasted. However,
the bottles are lettered randomly, so even we do not know which wine is which.
To promote the tastings, we generally have identified several of the wines we are tasting,
but rarely are more than 4 or 5 known to the tasters.
Each taster has a one-and-a-half ounce pour of each wine. We provide score sheets,
though we don't ask tasters to hand these in. After approximately 30-40 minutes of
relative silence (we ask tasters to refrain from table talk to allow each taster to arrive
at a ranking independently), we hand out "tally sheets."
We do not offer cheese, as this clouds the palate. The maxim is "buy on apples,
sell on cheese." We do offer Copenhagen Bakery Sourdough French Bread at our
tastings as a palate cleanser. Spit buckets are offered for those who desire them.
The tasters participating in our events generally have a range of palate experience.
Some are novice tasters, while others are seasoned "veterans." A
number of regulars are in the wine trade.

HOW WE ARRIVE AT THE FINAL RESULTS
The participants are able to submit their rankings, which is how we arrive at a group
score. 1=first place ranking, while 8=last. No ties. It is
important for whomever is tallying the scores to be certain there are no duplicates (that
is, for example, two 5th place rankings on a single tally sheet~~this does happen!).
The scores are then added up. As in golf, low score wins. If you are conducting your own tasting of 8 wines, the total number of points should
be divisible by the number 36.

At this point we unveil the wines, last place to first. We invite the
participants to discuss their impressions of each wine. This is informative as each
taster has a different threshold for particular characteristics in the wines.
Further, while two people may have found the same characteristics, they may disagree on
the merits of a particular quality.
What one person finds as cedary and vanillin, another taster may view as being over-oaked.
One taster may describe a wine as big and rich, while another finds the wine heavy
and ponderous.
This is one reason why wine tasting is not rocket science! Just because someone
writes a critical publication about wine does not mean they are "right."

HOW TO INTERPRET THE RESULTS:We find several numbers of interest in conducting wine tastings. The
most important numbers are our personal rankings (who cares what others think?).

The group ranking is interesting, but keep in mind that in every tasting there is a first
place wine and a last place wine. We have conducted tastings where the last
place wine is worth purchasing, while in other tastings, we've had little interest in
buying the first place wine.

The "TOTAL POINTS" column offers some revealing statistics. What's the
range of points? For example, in one tasting the group #1 had 35 points, while the
last place wine has 93 points. This is a significant difference. In another
tasting the top wine tallied 64 points, while the least favorite had 98. We
typically have 15-18 participants. When the first place wine has 64 and the third
place has 67, the results can be greatly impacted by one taster, meaning there's not a
significant difference in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in that particular tasting. In the
tasting with a wine having just 35 points in its first place finish, the second place wine
had 49 points. This means one or two tasters cannot have a big impact on the
ranking; that 1st place finish is rare and indicates a wine of universal appeal.

1st/2nds/Lasts offers some insight into the rankings. Sometimes a wine will have
many first or second place votes and a last place vote or two. This indicates some
point of controversy. In other instances a wine may have no high
rankings and a significant number of lasts, another telling statistic. We have
conducted tastings where a wine with the greatest number of firsts and seconds does not
win. This may be due to some tasters finding some detracting feature in that wine.

Periodically we see a tasting where a wine "sneaks" into first place, merely by
having generally agreeable characteristics and all "upper division" (first,
second, third and fourth place) votes.

Please note: The wines tasted are not always wines
we have (or have had) in the shop.
Many bottles are merely for our enological exploration.
Price quoted are current at the time of the tasting, but may be different
when you're reading this.

WE HAVE NOT ORGANIZED A TASTING IN A WHILE...
BUT WE DO POST THE RESULTS OF A PRIVATE TASTING GROUP THAT'S BEEN MEETING FOR
MORE THAN 40 YEARS!

We are working on
organizing some blind-tastings at the shop.
Send us a note to indicate your interest in participating.
These would be on Wednesday evenings and you'd need to bring 8 wine glasses.